The DoppleGranger
by JBHart
Summary: Hermione's wand catches a cold and creates her quasi-evil twin! Better watch out Malfoy; this one's a heartbreaker! *A/U – There is no Voldemort in this universe. Yay!
1. One Mistake Doth Two Make

**The Dopple_Granger – _**

Hermione's wand catches a cold and creates her quasi-evil twin! Better watch out Malfoy; this one's a heartbreaker!

*A/U – There is no Voldemort in this universe. Yay!

~ Chapter 1 ~ One Mistake Dost Two Make

_Dearest Harry,_

_It's so bizarre not having you here at school this semester. Even though Ron and I will miss you terribly, Dumbledore made the right choice in making you Hogwart's seventh year ambassador to Bulgaria. I'm so proud of you! I'm going to write to you every week to help you keep up with Snapes lectures. I know he'll expect you to be able to keep up even though you'll be gone for two months! Enclosed, please find my meticulous notes. I hope the illustrations are clear. I labeled every diagram in English and Elvish! (I'm going to be teaching a spells class to the house elves this semester. Wish me luck!) Hope you're getting on well over there._

_All my love,_

_Hermione P.S. Did you say 'hello' to Viktor for me?_

Hermione bit the tip of her quill in thought. Then she placed the nib on the question mark, and the quill magically retraced the last line, drawing up every drop of ink. No need to mention Viktor Krum. There. That should do it.

Satisfied with her first letter to Harry since he'd left, she folded it and dripped the sealing wax. She stamped the letter closed and laid it aside.

No one was in the Gryfindor common room this early in the morning, so she was startled when she heard a faint cough. "Glinda?" she called. The house elf hadn't been feeling well earlier that morning, and Hermione feared she might have caught a cold. "Glinda, are you here?" She looked under her desk then heard another cough, and looked up.

She'd left her wand lying on top of a stack of crème coloured parchment, the top sheet of which had gone black and small clouds of smoke puffed from the end of her wand. "Hello," she said, perplexed. "What's this?"

The wand coughed again, and the small colorful sparks that sprayed from the tip sprinkled her face. "Ooh," she said as she patted out the tiny burning embers.

"Morning, Hermione," Ron said with a yawn. He'd just gotten up, and with his red hair frumpled and his robe the same, he looked like he would just as soon still be in bed instead of starting the day. He rubbed his eyes. "Been up all night have you? Snape didn't give us that much homework."

"No, I got up early as usual." She held out her wand to him. "Do you see anything amiss with my wand? It's acting up."

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's coughing and spewing sparks everywhere."

"Oh that. It's no problem."

"What do you mean 'It's no problem?' I can't use a wand like this at Hogwarts. I'll be the laughing stock of the entire school!"

"Mine acts like that and I'm no laughing stock."

"People expect that from you, Ron." His face drooped and she realized she'd hurt his feelings. "Oh I didn't mean anything, really. Just look at it."

The wand coughed again and the sparks singed his hair. Smoke wafted in little rivulets from the top of his head, but he paid no notice. He rolled his eyes. "It's got a cold, Hermione," he said matter-of-factly. "Haven't you ever heard of that happening? You must've left it out in a draft or something." He handed the wand back to her. "Better keep it away from everyone else's wands. These colds are very contagious."

"How do you know all that?" Hermione said staring at her wand as if she'd never seen it before. "Why haven't I read about it?"

"Some things, Hermione, you learn from experience," Ron said. "My brother George's wand caught the measles once. Swelled up like a cigar it did. Next thing we knew both the wand and George had to spend a week in hospital."

"You're putting me on."

"No, straight up. Ask Ginny."

Hermione held the wand as far away from her as possible. She had left it out last night, and there was such a terrible draft from the cold front that had swept in overnight. "Should I take it to the hospital wing then?"

"Maybe. At least you should have it looked at, get the nurse to write a note excusing you from using it for a while."

"I'll do that," she said, and she walked toward the stairway to the girl's dormitory carefully holding the wand out at arm's length.

The other girls were still sleeping when Hermione reached the bedroom. Another cough came from her wand and she shushed it. "Oh Hermione, get off it," she quietly berated herself. She carefully set the wand on her dresser and searched for its case. She usually knew exactly where to get it but the frustration and embarrassment of having a coughing, sneezing wand in her posession flustered her. "Where is it?"

The wand was now wheezing and the awful noise grew louder with each successive gasp. Hermione suddenly realized that the wand was winding up to the biggest sneeze ever. She snatched it up and ran to the bathroom. If it sneezed in there, at least it wouldn't wake everyone.

By the time she got to the bathroom, the wand had quieted down. "That's your game is it?" Hermione said in disgust. "So sneeze already."

Those must have been the magic words because the wand released the biggest and loudest sneeze ever. The bathroom filled with smoke and sparks and Hermione found herself on the cold floor with a very sore rump. "Gesundheit," she muttered.

"Thank you," it said.

"What?"

"I said, thank you. But I didn't sneeze."

Hermione waved the smoke away from her face and found herself face to face with—it was impossible—herself!

"Hello."

Hermione got to her feet. "Who are you?"

"You know perfectly well who I am. You made me." Seeing disbelief in Hermione's eyes she explained. "I'm your doppleganger…you're double? Your twin?"

Hermione stared, with her mouth agape. What a terrible way to start a semester!


	2. Pure Magic

~ Chapter 2 ~ Pure Magic

"You're not my twin! You can't be!" Hermione exclaimed in horror, as she stared at her duplicate.

"But I am," said her twin, calmly getting up off the tiled bathroom floor. "You conjured me up with that spell…the er…well I don't remember what spell you used, but it was a good one and I'd like to thank you for bringing me about. I've always wanted to attend Hogwarts."

Hermione's double started for the door, and Hermione grabbed her arm. "You can't go out! You don't belong here! Get back in my wand this instant!"

"No!" said the twin, jerking her arm free. "I'm not going back into that tiny little space. I'm claustrophobic! You'll never get me to go back in there!"

Without warning, the twin darted out the door.

"Wait! Come back here!" Hermione exclaimed. She had to catch that double before the entire Gryffindor house found out about her.

Ron sank cozily into one of the puffy chairs in front of the Gryffindor common room fireplace, a glass of pumpkin juice in one hand, and his potions notes in the other. He squinted at the paper and shook his head. "Can't even decipher my own handwriting." He took a sip of pumpkin juice, and saw Hermione came flying down the steps from the girls' dormitory. "Hermione," he said, "what's the composition of the potion we learned yesterday? I can't tell if this says toadstools or…" But Hermione didn't stop. She squealed in fright and ran out of the common room and through the Fat Lady portrait.

Ron could only stare. He had never seen Hermione in such a panic. Maybe Peeves had been in the girl's loo. He took another drink of the pumpkin juice, sputtered and did a double take when Hermione came bounding down the stairs—_again_. "Hermione! What's going on? You just ran out of here in an awful hurry."

"Ron!" she said quickly. "Help me catch me!

"What?"

"This is terrible! My wand sneezed and accidentally made a duplicate of me! I have to put her back before everyone finds out! Come on!" She bolted from the room after her twin.

Ron calmly set down the pumpkin juice and straightened his tie. "This is going to be a long day," he muttered and followed her.

It didn't take Ron very long to find the two of them. He saw Hermione dash down the last of the staircases and to the doors leading outside. "This is going to be a very long day," he muttered again.

By the time he reached the two of them, one of the Hermione's was desperately holding the other's sleeve and the other was shrugging out of the robe trying to escape.

"Alright, alright," he said. "Let's sort this through, eh?"

The girls stopped struggling. "Ron," said one of them. "You're a reasonable fellow. Tell this…this…Hermione to let me go. I'm only trying to see Dumbledore. Surely he will know what to do. I'm not going back into that wand. It's dark in there, and it's no fun at all!"

"Ron!" said the other Hermione. "Help me send her back. She'll ruin everything!"

Ron looked from one to the other. Both of them breathing heavily from running were waiting for his decision. "Now, Hermione—" he said.

"Yes?" they both responded at once, then glared at each other.

"It seems to me to be a reasonable request. Dumbledore will be able to solve this problem fairly. It seems to me that if she wants to stay in our world we should at least give her a chance."

"Ron!" Hermione gasped in exasperation. "He can't find out about this! I'll never be able to live it down."

"It was an accident," Ron said. "Dumbledore won't hold it against you. I'll come with you to back you up. Everything will be fine."

Hermione glared at her twin. "Alright," she said. "But don't try any funny business. We're going straight to Dumbledore, got it?"

The twin clapped her hands together in glee. "Great!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "This has got to be the worst day of my life."

They turned to go back to the castle, and nearly ran into a group from Slytherin.

"Out of the way, Mudblood!" Malfoy said, and Crabbe and Goyle, his ever-present lackeys, sniggered.

"Malfoy! That's the last time you're calling anyone a Mudblood!" Ron challenged as he reached for his wand.

Hermione grabbed his arm to stop him. "He's trying to provoke us. Don't let him."

Malfoy grinned. He never missed an opportunity to bully. "And who's this? Another mudblood like you?" he said jerking his head at Hermione's twin. "Potter's gone. Why can't we get rid of one bloody Gryffindor without gaining another?"

"I'm not a mudblood, Malfoy," the duplicate said and she turned to face him. Her green eyes shined like emeralds and one corner of her mouth slowly curved up like the thin tail an adder. She looked Malfoy up and down and she wet her lips, as if she were preparing to devour him. "I'm pure magic. No one can deny _my_ pedigree."

Malfoy's face drained whiter than its usual shade of pale, and he stared at those red lips. Then his eyes shot up at hers, and he leveled his gaze menacingly. "P-pure magic?" he sputtered, and tried to sneer, "What do you mean?"

"Hermione made her." Ron blurted, then grimaced at his tactlessness.

Hermione's eyes widened and she sent Ron a serious look. "It was a mistake. One that Dumbledore will sort out," she said, her face flushing pink.

"So, Malfoy," Ron said, recovering quickly, "If you don't mind, we'd like you to get out of our bloody way so we can get on with it." Ron shoved past Malfoy. "C'mon Hermione."

Hermione lifted her chin and followed. "C'mon…er…Hermione."

The duplicate reluctantly followed.

"I like him," she said with a giggle when she caught up to Ron and Hermione. She looked back at him. "He's so handsome when he sneers like that, don't you think?"

"Eww!" Hermione exclaimed. She wrinkled her nose. "Ron, we'd better hurry, or she'll ruin my reputation!" She grabbed her twin by the arm, and they hurried across the green.


End file.
